6 Reasons to start watching Better Call Saul if you haven’t already!

I am sure most of you would have watched or at least heard of AMC’s Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, the most epic and badass TV show I have ever seen. We have had seen some other superb shows from AMC’s stable too like The Walking Dead, Mad Men etc. However the latest in series is Better Call Saul and you have heard it right. It is a kind of is a spin-off, prequel, and sequel to Breaking bad and is set in the same universe. The only difference is, here, protagonist is none other than the awesome law attorney Saul Goodman. Story is set in 2002, This show is about small-time lawyer James McGill (Bob Odenkirk), six years before he met Mr Walter White in Breaking Bad.

The show premiered on February 8, 2015. The debut episode set the record for the highest-rated scripted series premiere in basic cable history, with 4.4 million viewers in the 18–49 demographic, and 6.9 million viewers overall. With 6 episodes aired as of today( hence the 6 reasons 😉 ), First season is said to have 10 episodes with a Second season following up with 13 more episodes of “Saulgoodness” for you.

SPOILER ALERT:If you are not finished up with Breaking Bad, read on with caution! Some character and plot specifics may be mentioned in the post below.

He wasn’t always Saul Goodman, ace attorney for chemist-turned-meth dealer Walter White. Six years before he begins to represent Albuquerque’s most notorious criminal, Goodman is Jimmy McGill, a small-time attorney hustling to make a name for himself. He’s a forceful champion for his low-income clients, an underdog whose morals and ambitions often clash. Jimmy works with private eye Mike Ehrmantraut, a former Philadelphia cop and recent transplant to the Southwest. Mike has a specialized skill set — he’s a “fixer” of sticky situations — that Jimmy soon learns to appreciate.

So here we go, coming up with…

Reason #1: Saul Goodman, duh!

Slippin’ Jimmy

Saul, who still goes by his birth name James Mcgill, is already a lawyer but only a lot less successful. He has to sleep in his office, which is located in the back of a nail salon and spa. He mostly work for the court as a commit lawyer for 700$ a case and he is struggling with debts but hey, no complaining!

This is what makes this a hell of a TV show, after all won’t you be interesting to know how he managed to save Mr White’s ass almost every single time and got away with this line : “Let’s just say I know a guy…who knows a guy …who…knows another guy!”

Reason #2: Mikey!

Mike Ehrmantraut

Let’s accept it we all loved the badass yet good-hearted Mike Ehrmantraut in #BB. I still remember that scene back in the BB’s 3rd season [in the episode “Full Measure”] where Mike drops his granddaughter off at the house, and immediately after that, he goes to the warehouse and shoot all the guys. This alone justifies how dangerous he could be when needed.

Guess what, Mike works in a parking ticket booth outside of Jimmy’s court office. It seems like we are going to witness Mike’s journey from that booth to right hand of Gustavo Fring. Today’s episode (S01E06) was entirely dedicated to developing the back story of Mike’s life and how he revenged the death of his son. It will be pretty interesting to see how Vince decides to develop this character.

Reason #3: Crazy Tuco is back!

Tuco Salamanca

Yes! Tuco Salamanca appeared on Better Call Saul (S01E02) and guess what, he wasn’t very happy. Tuco, a psychopathic Mexican drug kingpin in Breaking Bad, is no more than a psychopathic low-level drug dealer in Better Call Saul aspiring to hit it big. It is not his stature but his personality which makes him a very dangerous criminal.

As proved in BB, he shows little or no regret for killing people even close to him if they ever do something disrespectful as per his view. We saw this behaviour when Tuco planned to torture the twins to death because of the way they disrespected his grandmother.

Reason #4: Flashbacks, Throwbacks and Nostalgia..

Better Call Saul has like a lot of call backs to Breaking Bad filmed to being back that nostalgic sense highlighting some of the key points such as:

In the premier prologue, we see Saul Goodman workingataCinnabonrestaurantsportingaWalterWhite-esque mustache.

Saul’s cinnamon covered fate

Jimmy parks his shabby Suzuki Esteem next to a Cadillac Deville, the same car make that Saul later drives on Breaking Bad. A subtle reference to the lawyer’s future financial success. 😉

Suzuki Esteem ftw!

Saul’s windshield is broken in the pilot episode when two skater scam artists throw themselves in front of his car to try a pay-day out of Saul. Broken Windshield! Ring a bell? In Breaking Bad, Walter White struggled to keep his Pontiac Aztek’s windshield intact. It broke so many times that even Vince Gilligan went on record to say “That is not something we set out to do. However, we found to our own surprise that Walt’s windshield seemed to get broken an awful lot.”

Ouch!

Reason #5: This show has ability to bring back the “Dead”!

Return of the Kings?

Well before you ask me, I am not talking about The Walking Dead! But Yes! Due to the show’s timeline, it has the edge to bring back the dead from Breaking Bad (*cough*Mike*cough*). It will be really killer if we see a cameo of Mr White shopping in the background while Jimmy is buying stuff at Supermarket or maybe a glimpse of Jessy Pinkman bitching around 😀 Possibilities are endless. Better Call Saul can really explore into backstory of the characters from BB. Be it Gustavo, Walter White, Jessy, Hector etc.

Maybe we will also see evolution of Gray Matter Technologies(a company co-founded by Walter White with his friend Elliott Schwartz). Won’t that be awesome?

Reason #6: Coz It’s gonna be EPIC!

Oh Jimmy!

Mark my words guys, this show is going to be at par with awesomeness of Breaking Bad. Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan are brilliant people. Better Call Saul begs to differ from being just a spin-off of Breaking Bad. The show has it’s own soul. It’s keeping up a 9.3/10 rating on IMdb which is only going to get better with time. This show has a perfect blend of Drama, Comedy and Crime. Bob Odenkirk has already proven his prowess before and this time he would want to launch “Saul Goodman” to another dimension.

So here were the 6 Reasons to start watching Better Call Saul if you haven’t already! Go on guys, switch on that idiot box and get hooked.